From 2017 to 2020, I built a marketing agency called LOUD with Kazim Rashid. LOUD was designed to help consumer businesses grow revenue by improving their products’ meaning in culture.

We built LOUD as outsiders with a team of outsiders. We hired 15 brilliant people, with only a handful having any experience working in an agency. We weren’t institutionalised in any sort of way. We didn’t know the ‘right’ way from the ‘wrong’. We didn’t want to make any one thing in particular.

Our work was multinational. We ran research, shoots, events and campaigns in more cities than I can remember. From London to Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul, Doha, New York, New Jersey, LA, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Goa, Brisbane and many more

For a team that started with very few contacts and zero track record, we grew quickly. We pitched and worked with more than 10 iconic businesses, including adidas, Dr. Martens, PVH, Red Bull, and Marriott. We worked with senior clients in global roles, retaining and growing most of our accounts. We grew from a standing-start to annual billings in the millions within two years. 

In 2020, covid did what covid did and we sadly wrapped up the business. But the legacy of LOUD lives on in so many people, their work and their ideas.

→ Read: Lessons from LOUD: reflections on building an agency